The Student Government Association has not fully updated its Web site, despite passing the SGA Accountability Act, which promised to provide executive and legislative profiles and individual contact information.
"It isn’t as updated as we’d like it to be, and it isn’t as complete as we’d like it to be," SGA president David Rosen said. "Our weak link is the Web site."
The bill, introduced April 4, aims to improve SGA’s Web site by providing information including town hall and committee meeting times, executive member and senate contact information, voting records, attendance records and a list of authored legislations.
The bill did not detail any timeline, but did state that the SGA passed the legislation in order to make the SGA "transparent and open, so that we will always be accountable to our fellow students."
SGA Vice President Sam Dike said that the Web site still needs work.
"We’ve been having problems with our Web site," Dike said. "We’ve been having problems with our web developer."
After the bill was passed, advertising senior Robert Asaad was hired to create a new Web site, Rosen said. He said the SGA offered Asaad $250 from the executive reserves to improve the Web site.
Executive reserves are money set aside in the organization’s budget for "times like these," Rosen said. The SGA has not paid Asaad yet, he said.
Asaad said he was hired to create the Web site, not to update it.
Dike said the main problem is that it’s difficult to get in touch with the web developer.
Assad said he has worked 60 to 70 hours on the Web site even though he has another part-time job and goes to school full time.
"It’s an ongoing project," Asaad said. "I’m sorry some things can’t be perfect."
Rosen said the SGA has been focusing more on working toward improving textbooks, parking and the SGA Cares Initiative rather than the Web site.
The bill called for online profiles of each Senate and executive member with enough information for "students to adequately inform themselves on the issues and view the work" of SGA, the bill stated.
Rosen said it’s important for students to be able to view all the written reports, meeting minutes and any other documents so they know what SGA is working on.
The bill also stated that executive profiles, which include the president, vice president, regent, and directors of finance and public relations profiles, should include "name, position, college and classification, office hours, contact info, any executive reports, monthly time sheets, and university committee assignments."
Senate profiles are to include "name, position, college and classification, contact info, voting records, attendance records for senate meetings and SGA standing committee meetings, SGA senate standing committees and University committee assignments and a list of all legislation authored and sponsored," the bill stated.
In addition to these, the bill requires senators to "submit a monthly written report about an ongoing issue or project that they have worked on either individually or with other SGA members," it said, and that each report "shall be made available through a link the senator’s profile."
As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the SGA Web site was updated to include senatorial and executive member classifications, e-mail addresses, a link for recent legislation from the home page and meeting minutes from Aug. 30, 2006 to April 18.
The SGA does not have any meeting minutes before Aug. 30 available for posting.
Before Wednesday’s updates, the spots allotted for the senators’ goals and legislation were blank. Also, no roles, statements or reports were listed.
Dike said the SGA senators have been submitting their monthly reports, but they haven’t been put on the Web site yet.
He said the organization is looking to finding someone who could update the site more frequently.
When asked about the Web site’s status, Rosen said he and Asaad would work immediately to start fixing its problems.
"It’s important for us to fix these things," Rosen said.
